1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains in general to a mobile telephone supporting a plurality of communication network protocols, and more particularly, to a mobile telephone converter for selectively equipping the mobile telephone to communicate using one or more communication network protocols.
2. Description of Related Art
The wireless communications industry is experiencing a proliferation of new mobile communication networks and associated protocols. Currently there exist a variety of analog and digital networks using various communication techniques such as Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). Such systems include the Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), the Digital Advanced Mobile Phone Service (DAMPS), and the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) among others. Communication networks also operate on a variety of frequency bands. Furthermore, additional communication networks and protocols for mobile communication continue to be introduced such a Personal Communication System (PCS), and various satellite systems such as Asia Cellular Satellite system (ACeS) and ICO Global Communications satellite system.
At the same time, mobile telephone usage is expanding dramatically and the trend is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. Mobile telephones are increasingly used when traveling as more and more subscribers take their mobile telephones with them when they travel outside of their service areas. Mobile telephones becomes useless, however, when subscribers travel into areas where the available communication network protocols are incompatible with the protocol supported by their mobile telephone.
To address this problem, manufactures of mobile telephones offer mobile telephones which incorporate functionality allowing communication using more than one communication network protocol. The additional functionality, however, results in a mobile telephone which is larger, heavier, and more expensive then a single or dual protocol mobile telephone. Such an approach also requires that the manufacturer and user anticipate which protocols need to be included and no provision is available for adding additional protocols as the subscriber travels into unanticipated areas or as new communication network protocols are introduced. Furthermore, a subscriber may require the added functionality only occasionally and may desire to carry a single or dual protocol mobile telephone and add additional protocol functionality only when traveling.
It would be advantageous therefore, to devise an apparatus and method allowing a mobile telephone to be equipped such that the mobile telephone can be selectively outfitted to operate using one or more communication network protocols.